Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison — that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Colossians 4:2-6.
Our vision for Oak Grove Church is about being great neighbors by using generosity and good works to find doorways into people’s lives so that we might learn about their journey with a view to sharing the hope of the gospel.
The first indication we love our neighbors is we are steadfast in prayer. Paul made it clear that God opens up doors, so to speak, into people’s journey. We can force those things, but God is the one who opens the door for us. The need for us as children of God is to be diligent in prayer to see how God opens those doors.
The second characteristic of loving our neighbors is prayer must be followed by being watchful. I suspect that all of us have missed many opportunities to connect with our neighbors because we have not been paying attention to the opportunities the LORD has provided.
It is hard to see opportunity when we are distracted. We all have so many things going on in our lives that unless something profound interrupts our normal schedule, it is often hard to recognize these situations when they appear. We often live in the moment, but we are usually locked into a certain mindset because we have to get things done, we quickly dismiss even the best opportunities.
Thirdly, if we claim to love our neighbors we must walk with wisdom toward outsiders. This presupposes we have relationships with our neighbors and have been meaningful in connecting with them. Unfortunately, many of us have very little than a casual wave at our neighbor when we leave for work in the morning. We don’t really know our neighbors and make little effort to connect with them. But we live amongst the lost and God has called us to be His ambassadors of Christ to these people. Again, we are reminded to make the most of the time.
Fourthly, if we love our neighbors our speech must be filled with grace. Our words can build up or tear down. The fact that Paul described our speech as “seasoned as if with salt” it implied that there is a tasteful, healing impact on the people in our world who are hurting and desperate. We need to offer hope and help to our neighbors to find Christ. The concept here is how we speak to others as much as what we say to them.
Finally, we need to have some response to offer truth with grace. Ultimately, speaking the truth, the gospel, in love is the heartbeat of those who truly love their neighbors. I believe those who truly love their neighbors will share Christ. The gospel is the only hope for humanity and if we have truly received Christ, we are compelled to share our story of how God has helped and redeemed us.
The question we have to vet for ourselves is do we love our neighbors. It would be tempting to say that we love our neighbors because we don’t have any conflict or animosity towards them. But love is far more active than the absence of conflict. Like Christ, we are to take the initiative to make the most of the opportunity to pray, connect and walk with our neighbors so that we might know how to respond to each one.
In His grace,
Pastor Brad
